In the current information age, information technology (IT) tools play a significant role in our daily activities, and there are often discussions of the desirableness of a paperless society. Although IT tools are used extensively to create, edit and process electronic documents, paper is still used in many instances within various stages of document generation, editing and handling. For example, there are still many instances in which the original document is a paper document (or is in another non-electronic form), and in such case, it is common to scan such paper or non-electronic document, into a document image in electronic form, to facilitate distribution, archiving, etc. On the other hand, there are other instances in which the original document is in an electronic format (e.g., application-specific format that is no longer employed, such as .dox file created by using Multimate program, .wsd file created by WordStar program, etc.), but is not, or is no longer, in a common electronic format at the current time, and in such instance, it may be desirable or even necessary to convert the document into a document image or a file in a commonly-used electronic format.
In any event, in such examples, as well as in other instances in which the original document is already in a commonly-used electronic format, when the document (or copy thereof) is distributed or shared, it is often the case that the recipient would place notes or comments on the document or copy, to record the recipient's thoughts on paper or in electronic form. However, without an appropriate tool, such document or copy bearing notes or comments can be readily lost, or at least left in an unorganized fashion or place such that it becomes likely to be effectively lost over time.
Further, even if such author of the notes or comments has conventional IT tools (e.g., e-mail, etc.) readily available to capture, archive and distribute such notes or comments, much manual and mental efforts are needed from the sender and/or others to organize and maintain such notes and comments along with the notes and comments of others in a centralized and organized fashion, to facilitate processing of such information downstream in the information flow.
Some document review and edit applications are now available, but it typically requires the document author and each document reviewer to operate as a workgroup and use such application software. On the other hand, such approach fails to appreciate that in many instances the document author is an outsider and/or one or more document reviewers prefer, and even limit themselves, to performing the review and editing on paper.
There remains a need for tools to organize captured notes and comments, in a largely automated fashion, while facilitating information processing of the notes and comments (such as when multiple sets of notes or comments are shared).